Wireless display systems generally include a source device that sends audio, video, and/or other multimedia data to one or more sink devices participating in a particular media share session. The media data may be played back at both a local display associated with the source device and at displays associated with each sink device. More specifically, each sink device participating in the particular media share session typically renders the received media data on a screen and audio equipment associated therewith. Furthermore, in some cases, a user may apply user inputs to the sink device (e.g., touch inputs, remote control inputs, etc.). In wireless display systems, the user inputs may be sent from one or more sink devices to the source device, and the source device may then process and apply the user inputs received from the sink devices on subsequent multimedia data sent to the sink devices. For example, the emerging Wi-Fi Display standard (also known as Miracast™) developed by the Wi-Fi alliance is based on Wi-Fi Direct and provides an interoperable mechanism to discover, pair, connect, and render multimedia data from a Wi-Fi Display source device at a Wi-Fi Display sink device.
In general, the source device and each sink device may be either mobile devices or wired devices with wireless communication capabilities. In one example, as wired devices, the source device and/or the sink devices may comprise televisions, desktop computers, monitors, projectors, or other suitable devices that include wireless communication capabilities. In this case, battery life may not be a significant concern because the source device and the sink devices are wall-plugged. However, in other examples where the source device and/or one or more sink devices are mobile or wireless devices, the source device and/or the sink devices may comprise mobile telephones, portable computers with wireless communication cards, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable media players, or other flash memory devices with wireless communication capabilities, including so-called “smart” phones and “smart” pads or tablets, or other types of wireless devices, which are typically powered by limited battery resources. In the case of a wireless display system, the source device will typically be responsible for processing all media data for display at the sink devices and the user inputs received from the sink devices. Accordingly, improved battery life and battery conservation are important concerns when designing wireless devices that may be used as a source device in a wireless display system.
Furthermore, next-generation wireless devices may be expected to wirelessly render high fidelity media data with high resolution external televisions, monitors, and other suitable displays (e.g., ˜4K/8K at 60-240 Hz), which requires continuous high-throughput wireless networking according to the new directional 802.11ad standard delivering ˜2 GbpS air-capacity. Meanwhile, many other use cases and/or applications with less demanding throughput may only require sporadic wireless connections that can be adequately provided using conventional Wi-Fi technologies such as 802.11n or the new 802.11ac variance. As such, depending on Wi-Fi client scenarios, required connections, and expected performance (e.g., latency, throughput, resiliency, etc.), the new high-throughput 802.11ad directional Wi-Fi networking subsystem should be smartly added to conventional Wi-Fi technologies to allow optimum control over the combined Wi-Fi infrastructure in order to provide the necessary Wi-Fi performance and platform power optimizations.